150 more small shops in Tesco invasion

The supermarket giant is due to launch 150 stores in the smaller Express format over the next 12 months, compared with around 100 annually in recent years.

According to Retail Week magazine, that will take the chain's total Express stores to almost 1,000, including about 200 in and around London.

Campaigners claim the smallerformat convenience stores destroy local independent shops and cause congestion and noise in residential areas.

But they have proved hugely successful for Tesco, particularly in London and the South-East, where finding sites for larger superstores is difficult. They have helped the chain lead the market in London.

Their size also means they are likely to avoid the new test proposed by the Competition Commission aimed at stopping one supermarket chain having a monopoly in one town.

The most "Tesco-ised" areas of the capital are Southall, where its stores account for 58 per cent of all grocery sales, and Twickenham, where £51 in every £100 goes through Tesco tills.

Sandra Bell, supermarkets campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said: "Tesco's seemingly unstoppable invasion of our high streets comes at the expense of independent shops and leaves shoppers with little choice of where to buy their groceries.

"While the commission's report, due next month, is hoped to stop the worst of this retail giant's bullying behaviour towards suppliers, it will do nothing to stop the Tesco-isation of our towns."

But a spokesman for Tesco said: "[Express stores] continue to be our most popular format.For many customers, when Tesco Express comes around it is the first time they have had access to good fresh food, particularly at the prices we offer."

MAP OF THE TESCO INVASION

EXPRESS STORE THAT SEALED FATE OF LAST POST OFFICE IN W14

It was the last Post Office in the Olympia W14 postcode area.

The counter had been moved into a Costcutter store in Hammersmith Road after the last stand-alone Post Office - in Blythe Road - shut three years ago.

But last autumn a Tesco Express arrived. By Christmas the Costcutter had closed. The Post Office struggled on in the empty shop but quickly bowed to the inevitable. By early in the New Year the site was empty, giving W14 the unwanted distinction of becoming the first London postcode district to have no Post Office branches.

The Post Office has said there were other factors in the closure but the presence of such a muscular competitor will make finding a new tenant a tough proposition.